


Keep It All from You

by Two_for_Slashing



Series: This Hurricane Loves You [1]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: M/M, Rare Pairings, but I actually really like it so go figure, this is a comedy, this started off completely differently than I intended
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-29
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2019-01-06 17:24:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12215421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Two_for_Slashing/pseuds/Two_for_Slashing
Summary: Jeff thinks Victor has a crush on Elias and that Teuvo and Sebastian are dating.  He's only right about one thing.





	Keep It All from You

**Author's Note:**

> This originally was supposed to be a Rask/Lindholm story, but I've pondered over the idea of doing Rask/Skinner before, and that's where the plot ended up heading.
> 
> Set this season, or else Eddie Lack would have been all over this story. Writing the Carolina Hurricanes was actually a lot of fun, and I wish I would have discovered that sooner, but they're still a great group of personalities to work with.
> 
> Title taken from My Song 5 by Haim.

Despite what the media and everyone interacting on it thought, Victor was 100% absolutely capable of smiling. He just didn't like doing it in front of a camera that often, wanting everyone to take him seriously as a skater and an alternate captain for the Carolina Hurricanes, and consistently beaming at every lens that was shoved in his face was not the way he was going to do it. Skinny had been smiling like that for ever, and he was just barely in the race for a "C", and Victor didn't want to say that all of the comparisons of Jeff being like a happy 12 year-old had anything to do with him becoming their new captain, but he did wonder about it, sometimes.

Jeff also liked to think he knew a lot about things he didn't know a lot about, and one of those things was Victor.

"I don't have a crush on Elias," he said to his sandwich, even though he really meant to say it to Jeff, but he was not going to give Jeff the satisfaction of looking at him and seeing his stupid smiling face beaming at him.

"Oh come on, Vic. How can you _not_?" Jeff shoved his phone under Victor's nose. " _Look_ at him."

Victor chewed on his BLT as he eyed the image of Elias from Instagram, one of the several from when they had been in Santorini for Eddie's wedding. Elias was topless, which wasn't that unusual, and sitting on the side of the pool, which wasn't that unusual during the summer. Victor had been there, seen Elias shirtless almost the entire time, and this image was nothing new to him. He had probably even taken the picture. Elias was all about handing his phone off to his friends for quality shots.

He was not taking notice of Elias' abs or his warm, pink skin, or how he could see the top of Elias' hips from how low-slung his swim-trunks happened to be, and he was definitely not paying attention to the sharply defined curve of muscles leading down to hidden places, just like how he hadn't taken notice of any of those things during the summer when they had been right before his eyes.

"Staalsie's body is better," he muttered, biting again into his sandwich.

Jeff let out an exasperated sigh, falling back into his chair. "Okay, yes, you got me there," he whined, and at that Victor allowed himself to smirk, because if Jeff had one weakness in life, it was Canadian males with the last name 'Staal', "but that's totally not my point."

"You have a point?"

"Well, not really a point, just an observation."

"And what have you observed that makes you think I like Elias?"

At this Jeff leaned forward onto the table, a sly grin etching onto his face. Victor immediately regretted posing the question, and regretted even more that he hadn't imposed personal space boundaries with Jeff when he was plotting a big reveal. He was definitely getting too close for comfort.

"Let's just say I saw something."

Victor frowned. "Well you can say it, but it doesn't make it true."

"You don't want to know what I saw?"

"I don't think you saw anything. I think you want me to think you did." He took another bite of his sandwich, watching as Jeff struggled to keep a straight face. 

"Victor, you have to like _someone_ on this team. I saw you all dressed up the other night. You had to be going out on a date."

"I can't just dress up for fun?"

"You only dress up for games, which is a fact, and don't try to tell me it's not." Victor nodded, mentally relinquishing a point in Skinny's favor, because he had too big a collection of caps to wear that he couldn't if he dressed up, and he really liked showing off his hat collection.

"Okay. Say I was dressing up for a date. What makes you think it was a teammate?"

"Because you have no other friends." Jeff grinned, mouthed _no duh_ , and promptly burst into giggles.

Victor felt his frown deepening. "The only reason you saw me dressed up is because I came to your apartment, Jeff. And I still don't have a crush on Elias."

"So was it Nordy then?"

Jeff was very fortunate Victor didn't have food or drink in his mouth when he posed his question, because he would have found one or the other spat all over him. " _What_? Nordy? _Really_?"

"Well he's the only other Swede on the team that isn't new." Jeff raised his hands in the don't-hurt-me stance. "For the record, I think Elias is more your type."

"I think Elias would be most people's type before Nordy," Victor responded as he sighed loudly. It would be like Jeff to assume he'd be attracted to or only want to date fellow Swedes. Most of his teammates seemed to be under that impression, and to be fair, they weren't entirely wrong. "Tell me you think the Finns are dating each other too."

Jeff didn't respond, poking at his side salad, shrugging as the corners of his mouth began to quirk up.

Victor rolled his eyes. Of course.

+

"Skinny thinks you two are dating."

Teuvo looked up from his phone, his face blank. Sebastian was busy lacing his skates, glancing briefly up at Victor as he sat down in the stall across from them. "Jeff thinks what?"

"That you two are dating," Victor repeated. Teuvo blinked slowly at him while Sebastian continued to work on his skate laces. "It's because you're both from Finland, so you must be dating."

"That...doesn't make any sense?" Teuvo's brow had knit into a confused line. 

"Ohmygod, _Victor_." Jeff strode in towards his stall, face a deep red. "You don't get it."

"What don't I get?" Victor tossed his hands up. "If you're from the same country, you must be dating. That is your logic. They -" he gestured at Teuvo and Sebastian, who had finished with his skates and was now casting furtive glances between Victor and Jeff, "- are from the same country, so they must be dating. You said so."

"I never said it, I _implied_ it."

"Oh, sorry." Victor turned back to the pair. "He did this." He then proceeded to mimic the shrug/smile of implication Jeff had given him, getting a small smile out of Sebastian while Teuvo blinked slowly at him. 

"That was really scary. Never do that again." Teuvo leaned forward to look at Jeff. "Skinny, that's not fair. I could say you're dating every Canadian on this team, but I know you're not."

"Staal is married," Sebastian pipped up, keeping the expression on his face completely blank. Teuvo let one "ha!" escape before he nudged Sebastian gently with his knee, but his eyes were full of pride. 

Jeff looked like he didn't know if he should laugh or cry. "Guys, c'mon, I got over that years ago."

"You got over both of them?" Faulk asked as he wandered in from the showers.

" _All_ of them." Jeff cast what Victor surmised was probably supposed to be a glare at him but quickly faltered into a small smile. "Alright, you win. I'll shut up about it."

Victor nodded his head, thankful that that was over. He unzipped his bag, fishing around for his Under Armour. Across from him, Teuvo and Sebastian had leaned towards each other, and he could hear Teuvo muttering in fast Finnish while Sebastian nodded his head every so often.

He was almost startled out of his stall when the door to the locker room banged open. "Rasker!" Elias called out, sauntering in with his gear hung over his shoulder. He paused, taking in what teammates were in the locker room, and then continued on in Swedish, "What's this I hear about you having a crush on me?"

Victor shot a glare that he hoped would kill at Jeff, who let out a soft squeaking noise as he burrowed into his stall and yanked his jersey over his head. Elias looked from Victor's face and to Jeff's headless form, a huge smirk on his face. 

Victor sighed, willing the annoyance to leave his body, and then he nodded towards Jeff. "He doesn't understand anything," he said in Swedish, and when he glanced over at Teuvo and Sebastian, he was getting sympathetic smiles from both of them. 

Elias looked down again at Jeff's still struggling, still headless form, and then he grinned at Victor, green eyes twinkling. "Shame," he mused, dropping his gear on the floor.

+

Luckily they won their game, and luckily Victor found himself in a good enough mood to agree to go out with a lot of younger teammates, and luckily they were in Canada where they wouldn't get in trouble for having all the rookies out to celebrate, so while that day hadn't exactly worked out how Victor had wanted it to, at least the evening was shaping up nicely. Staalsie knew a handful of local bars because it seemed like Canadians just knew those things even though he wasn't from Vancouver, and they were off, and Victor wasn't going to think about anything Jeff had said to him.

Victor found himself sitting with Teuvo and Sebastian, nursing a beer chosen for him by Faulk, listening to Teuvo ramble about Jeff's inane dating logic. Victor wasn't sure exactly how many drinks his Finnish teammate had had, but he had definitely had plenty. It was amusing, to say the least.

"Absolutely not. Just because we're both the Finns. That'd be like you, dating all the Swedes, just because you're Swedish. Stupid." Teuvo raised his vodka, sloshing half of it over the side of the glass. "Stupid."

"Very stupid," Sebastian echoed as he nursed something laced with so much rum Victor could smell it from where he was sitting across from the duo. For the fact he looked liked the shyest, sweetest rookie on the team, Sebastian could drink anyone under the table, and had no problem throwing back anything that was handed to him. 

"I mean, it's not like Sepe isn't attractive," Teuvo continued earnestly. "He's very attractive."

"I am," Sebastian agreed, nodding at Victor.

"And it's not like I haven't thought about kissing him."

"He has kissed me. Several times. We make-out frequently."

"And it's not like I haven't thought about fucking him. Because I have."

"He just needs to ask," Sebastian staged whispered at Victor. "He's slept over, but we've just cuddled."

"He's very warm," Teuvo added. He looked at Sebastian, who was staring at him fondly, his free hand on Teuvo's knee. "But, like, I don't want to do these things because he's a Finn. And it doesn't mean I want to date him."

"Except he does, because we are dating." Sebastian sucked hard on the straw in his liquor, and Victor tried not to notice the way Teuvo was staring at his mouth. "But it's not because we're the only Finns on the team."

"You make a compelling argument," Victor said as he sipped his beer. "I didn't know you talked so much, Sepe."

Sebastian raised his glass and grinned. "A good drink helps. And my English is much better than a year ago."

"He actually doesn't shut up when our friends are around," Teuvo added. "Don't ever hang out with him after we play Winnipeg or Edmonton. Trust me."

Sebastian shrugged and Victor smiled, reaching forward so they could clink glasses. He sipped his beer while Sebastian tossed back the rest of his drink. The young rookie rose to his feet, stretched out his arms, and announced, "I'm getting another. Hold my seat." He strode back in the direction of the bar with a lot more balance than Victor would have been expecting from someone who was probably drinking straight rum.

"So," Teuvo said, his head still turned towards the path Sebastian had just paved, "what's got you and Skinny being all weird?"

Victor grimaced behind his glass. He wasn't that close to Teuvo, but if he and Sebastian had been comfortable enough to tell him they were actually doing what Jeff thought they were doing, he figured he didn't have much to lose. Besides, the only other people he would even think about discussing this with happened to be Elias or Nordy, and he would be caught dead at the bar before he'd chance Jeff seeing him talking to Elias and he didn't have to look around to know Nordy was already topless on the dance floor.

"He thinks I have a crush on Elias."

"Is it because Lindholm's Swedish?" Teuvo asked. "Or because he's..." He waved his hands around, losing a little bit more vodka.

Elias was, definitely. Victor would never disagree with that, even if he didn't want Jeff to know he agreed. "Jeff thinks it's because we're Swedish. And probably because Elias is actually super attractive."

Teuvo narrowed his eyes at Victor thoughtfully. "So what's the problem?"

"I don't have a crush on him." To be fair, he did find Elias extremely attractive, and if Elias was ever interested in hooking up he probably wouldn't say no, but it wasn't a crush. "Jeff just doesn't get that."

"Well _do_ you like someone on the team?"

Victor looked down at his beer. It was still fizzing, even after what had to have been an hour of working at it, and the bubbles, though small, were much more interesting than looking at whatever expression Teuvo had on his face.

That was obviously enough of an answer, because Teuvo followed his unanswered question with, "Who is it?"

Victor raised his head, half thinking about telling him, when a hand grabbed his shoulder. "Rasker!" Elias cooed, and he hefted himself onto the empty side of the couch. He slipped his arm around Victor's shoulders, squeezing him tightly.

Victor sighed, closing his eyes. "Hey Elias."

"Hey Teuvo. Sepe."

Victor opened his eyes. Sebastian was busy nestling himself back onto his couch with Teuvo, settling into the other Finn's side comfortably. Teuvo had slipped his arm around his waist, beaming softly. "Hey Lindy," Sebastian replied for the both of them.

"So, Victor." Elias had his head turned inwards, his breath hot against his neck. Victor resisted the urge to shiver, especially with the small audience sitting across from them. He could hear the playfulness in Elias' voice, which was more of a good thing than a bad thing, despite the situation. "You and me, huh? Why'd you never tell me you wanted me? I don't like having to hear these things from Jeff."

"Jeff doesn't know what he's talking about," Victor muttered as he glanced at Elias. " _You_ know that."

"You keep saying that, and yet," he motioned towards the Finns seated across from them. "It doesn't look like he's completely wrong."

"If you two say anything about this to anyone, we will invade your country." Sebastian gave them a very pointed look. It was a lot more effective than Victor would have expected.

"Wow, you've got some fire," Elias laughed. "Nice job, Teuvo. That must be fun." Teuvo ducked his head sheepishly, coloring a fierce red.

"For the record, they're not dating," Victor said to Elias. He could see Sebastian smile brightly at him out of the corner of his eye.

"Record has been noted. No one on this team is involved with each other." He winked at Victor, his green eyes sparkling. "Jeff is going to be really disappointed when he hears that."

"What's going to disappoint me?"

Victor looked over his shoulder. Jeff had wandered over, also holding a beer he had probably gotten from Faulk, and his dark eyes were looking over the foursome seated before him. Victor vaguely registered that they all looked very couple-y even though that was the last thing any of them were trying to seem. Jeff's gaze lingered on his face, and Victor was waiting for him to smile and start gloating that he was right, but instead he remained very composed.

That was weird. Victor felt discomfort settle into his stomach, soberness washing over him.

"No one on this team is dating each other, especially not me and Victor." Elias played a very straight face at Jeff. He tossed a pout in for added emotional depth. "Victor doesn't like me."

"I was really wrong about that?" Jeff asked. His gaze had moved down to where Elias' arm was still around Victor's shoulder. For the fact he had been jokingly predicting that Elias and Victor should get together, he didn't look too happy about it. Victor was keenly aware of this, and it was...something. "It doesn't look like I'm wrong."

"You're wrong," Elias insisted. 

Victor stood suddenly. He could feel four pairs of eyes on him, but he found himself looking down at his beer again, the only steady and sure thing he had. "I need to go...bathroom." He turned and headed off in the direction of a door that may or may not have been a bathroom, but he'd find out when he got there. He just needed to go.

As he was leaving, he heard Teuvo gasp, " _Oh_. No way!", followed by a soft, "What?" from Sebastian. 

Well, at least he had gotten his answer.

+

The door had been to a balcony, which was definitely not a bathroom but just fine by Victor because he hadn't actually been looking for a bathroom anyway. A handful of his teammates were standing at a hightop and they gestured him over, happyily talking about the results of the game. Victor felt some relief wash over him as he wedged in between Staalsie and Wardo, and he was grateful for getting a chance to talk sport and not people.

Except that didn't end up working out the way Victor had wanted it to. He still couldn't get the massive contrast of happy Jeff and unhappy Jeff out of his head despite his best effort. This annoyed Victor to no end, especially because Jeff had seen exactly what he had been teasing Victor about, exactly what he claimed he knew, and he didn't seem happy with the results.

It made no sense, absolutely no sense, and what infuriated Victor the most, was that Jeff was supposed to be the uncomplicated teammate, and here he was being the exact opposite.

Victor sighed deeply between breaks in the conversation, and pondered a bit when one of his teammates had taken a tangent, and then he sighed a few more times and pondered a few more times. By the time most of the team agreed they should start heading back to the hotel, he had some semblance of a plan created.

"What room is Jeff staying in?" he asked Elias when they were in the elevator together. 

Elias pulled out his phone, thumbing through his messages. He had a half-conscious Nordy leaning against his shoulder, humming some club song under his breath. "353. He's rooming alone too." His green eyes searched Victor's face. "Why?"

"Because I'm going to do what needs to be done."

Elias gaped at him for a moment, but then he smiled brightly. "Nice, Vic. Awesome. I hope that works out for you." He turned his head towards Nordy, who was now mumbling in Swedish. "I got this to take care of."

"I think if you leave him in the bathroom he'll be fine."

"I gotta be a bit nicer than that," Elias laughed softly. "You should know."

Victor bit his lower lip. "I don't know what you're talking about," he lied, definitely not recalling a few nights where he had had a few more drinks than was smart and had been supported over a toilet by Elias. "No idea."

"Okay, Rasker." Victor could almost hear the eyeroll Elias had given him, but he knew that eyeroll was given with a smile. The elevator dinged and the group exited. Victor was relieved to find the hallway empty of other Canes. He helped Elias get Nordy down to his room, and after they were both inside, he retreated back down the opposite end of the hallway until he found room 353.

Victor rolled back his shoulders, bracing himself. He rapt on the door, softly, but then with more fervor, incase Jeff might not be paying attention.

The door opened within seconds, so Jeff definitely was paying attention. "Hey Victor," he said, offering a tired yet still bright smile as a greeting. His hair was slightly mussed, and he had changed into a pair of flannel pajamas which looked very comfortable and very warm.

Victor most definitely didn't think about what it would be like to nestle against a warm Jeff while waiting for sleep to take him, and he definitely didn't think about kissing him goodnight, just like he never thought about kissing him, ever, or the way that Jeff might smile back at him, if that was something he liked.

He definitely hadn't been having these thoughts or other ones for over a year now, just like he definitely didn't have a crush on Elias Lindholm, because his crush was totally on Jeff Skinner, and that was the least expected thing he could have ever imagined.

"Victor?" Jeff wore a cautious smile now, and Victor figured he had every reason to, because what was going on was definitely not normal in any sense of the word.

"You're wrong," Victor said, building up courage as quickly as he could. "You're wrong, and you have no idea what you're talking about."

Jeff opened his mouth to respond but Victor leaned in and kissed him, and he could feel Jeff freeze up. Victor pulled back; Jeff was staring at him with huge eyes, his mouth hanging open, his hands gripping both sides of the doorway.

Victor nodded, not sure what else to do. "Okay, well," he said, just as Jeff began muttering, " _Oh_ , oh, _ohmygod_ , oh" under his breath in rapid succession. "I'm going back to my room."

Jeff snapped forward and grabbed his hand. "No, oh, no, no, _don't_." He pulled Victor towards him, happiness flooding over his features. "Do that again?"

Victor felt a smile taking over his own face. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Jeff was nodding his head so fast it totally would have fallen off his neck if it wasn't attached. "Yeah, please. Yeah." His smile split his face wide. "Yeah, I, yeah, please."

Victor reached out and took Jeff's smiling face in his hands before he gently tipped Jeff's head back and kissed him again. Jeff did not freeze up this time; he kissed back, his hands against Victor's shoulders. Victor slipped an arm around Jeff's waist to pull him closer, and Jeff was a warm comforting weight against his chest. Victor could tell by the way his lips were moving that Jeff was beaming, and a warmth spread throughout his body, because it was a beautiful feeling, and it was the absolute best.

When he pulled back Jeff buried his face into his shoulder, giggling softly. Victor rested his face in his dark curls, shutting his eyes, listening to the sound. He was used to the sound of Jeff's laughter, but tonight, caused by Victor's kiss, it was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard.

**Author's Note:**

> And in the end everyone still finds Elias Lindholm attractive. This is a given. Thanks for reading and enjoy.


End file.
